Martin Guevara Urbina: A Comprehensive Study of Female Offenders: Life Before, During and After Incarceration

A plethora of case studies and a bourgeoning body of empirical research can be found that documents the experiences of male prisoners; indeed the entire field or penological discipline was founded and grounded by analyzing and describing the policies, practices and methods for managing male inmates and their subsequent responses to incarceration. Only recently did penological discourse and academic research begin to consider the experiences of the incarcerated female offender or to even consider female criminality as separate, unique and distinct from male criminality.

Typically, these female oriented or gender specific studies are narrow in scope focusing on only one aspect of the woman’s offending or victimization or her judicial sentencing or her time in jails and prisons. Martin Guevara Urbina seeks to move beyond this type of limited or bounded study by conducting a thoroughly comprehensive study of the life histories of 456 incarcerated offenders in the Wisconsin Department of Cor ...